Census shows dynamic populations in San Diego, U.S.

Neighborhood-level data reveal San Marcos grew fastest in the county

Bill Flores, who is active with the Latino-rights organization El Grupo, is not so sure.“There were a lot of negative things coming from sitting council members,” Flores said, “and it’s likely to have had an effect on white Escondido residents that caused them to move away.”

Several census tracts in the historically black neighborhoods of southeast San Diego went from being home to a majority black population to less than 50 percent during the past decade.

Overall, the county’s black population decreased 5 percent — from 154,500 to 146,600. The largest proportion of that loss occurred in the southeast San Diego tracts.

Demographers didn’t expect the decline. They pointed to several possible factors, including more people who identified themselves as multiracial instead of black and the national trend of blacks moving back to the South after decades, or even generations, of being away.

Another reason could be an undercount of blacks who experienced hardships, lost their homes and moved in with family or friends during the recession, said Ray King, who heads the Urban League of San Diego.

Additional factors could be job loss, desire for better schools and opportunities to move to neighboring areas like Lemon Grove or more prosperous communities such as Encinitas or Carlsbad, where the number of blacks is climbing, King said.

“People want to have a good life, they want to send their kids to good schools, they want to have a job, and it’s expensive here,” he said. “This is not an economically friendly environment for anyone, and it’s certainly not for those who find themselves close to the bottom of the economic curve.”